A sledgehammer attack and a heist unfolding in a business area as offices and shops were opening for the day.

The FBI and PBSO are trying to catch up with the attacker.

CBS 12 spoke to an eyewitness and what she describes is blood chilling.

A man beaten nearly to death with a sledgehammer — the attacker wrestled away a bag of money– freshly delivered by an armored car.

And the aftermath of the crime could be felt and seen from miles away.

“I watched him just get mauled by the guy with a sledgehammer from my office door,” said the eyewitness.

We are calling the woman Betty Jo and we are not showing her face because the sheriff’s office confirms she was just feet away from the suspect in a shocking armed robbery — the weapon– a sledgehammer!

“It was just nuts,” Betty Jo said.

According to the sheriff’s office– the FBI is now involved– investigators are trying to figure out who the man with the sledgehammer is. And was this whole thing planned?

Tuesday morning at the Mangonia Business Park where 45th and Australian meet, sources in the sheriffs office say the suspect brutalized the business keeper and took a bag with $250,000.